Hannah Margaret is a Zooey Deschanel look-alike, college student, our guest writer on high school tips, and blogger at hm.~~ I’ve avoided this topic for fear of what to say, but it is time, my dear friends, to talk about the subject at the forefront of most of your minds: DATING TIPS & RELATIONSHIPS. aHow do you handle them? What do you do when you need to break it off? Why should you date someone? I literally could write for decades on this. I’m sure there are questions that need to be answered, and unfortunately I’ve had experience in quite a few situations. So email me (address at the end) if you have further thoughts or questions - I’m all ears.

So here are the basics on high school relationships:

1. If it’s not fun, don’t keep doing it. Your time is precious, and if you feel like you are wasting your time—get out of it. And when I say get out of it, I really mean get out of it. When I was in high school (not that long ago!) my girlfriends would drag out break-ups. They would cry, whine and beg even when they did the initial break up; and that, ladies, is not classy. Remember, you should never have to convince someone to be with you, and you should never be in a relationship that you don’t want to be in. The key word is fun. High school relationships shouldn’t drain you of all you have.

2. You aren’t going to be the same person you are now, so keep that in mind. Times will be a-changing, and you don’t want to get locked down too early (unless he’s the perfect catch). I would also take this a step further with this: find someone that wants to change with you. Be with someone that you can see changing in a positive direction, in a direction that you will be heading.

3. Don’t be anyone else but yourself. Don’t do something you’ll regret, and don’t do something you don’t want to do. I’m not going to go into graphic details, but I will say this: Peer pressure is a very present thing, and I encourage and plead with you to be strong. Stand up for boundaries, for what you believe and for who you are. I cannot emphasize this enough.

4. Life is about more than boys. Girlfriends, for instance, are a thousand times more important. Everyone knows someone, it may even be you, that is boy-crazy. This phrase is thrown around so often. I, once again, see why this happens but encourage you babes to go against the grain. Serial dating is just deadly at such an impressionable age, and your focus is best on friends. Guy friends (though proceed with caution), girl friends and mentors that you can rely on will make you well-rounded and less pained. Trust me.

My heart breaks for the heartbreaks in your future, and I wish I could hear from you, Popcosmo darlings, about this subject. I know this is a big deal. I know that there are questions. And I know that you all have something to say. Talk to me, I don’t bite (hard): hannahmargaret@hmallen.com.